Correlates of adolescent marijuana use as related to age, sex and ethnicity

This study examines the interactive effects of background factors and personality/attitudinal and perceived environmental dimensions on adolescent drug behaviour. Data were collected during home interviews using a structured interview schedule. The sample consisted of 403 British West Indian black, American black and white adolescents, ranging in age from 13 to 17. Results suggested that two processes, nonconformity to conventional middle class values at both the personality/attitudinal and institutional level and modeling of familial and peer drug use account in large part for adeolescent drug behaviour. The majority of correlates of adolescent drug behaviour were similar in different sex, age and ethnic groups. (AU)

Clinical perspectives on the Rastafari movement

Members of the Rastafari movement, which originated in Jamaica, are found in the Caribbean and in parts of the United States and Europe with a large Afro-Caribbean population. To help mental health professionals serve members of this group more effectively, the authors review the literature on the movement and present clinical cases examples with analyses and recommendations for interventions. The Rastafari movement is both a political and a religious group with a life-style that includes the wearing of dreadlock hairstyles and sacramental use of marihuana. The group also advocates opposition to traditional government and support member repatriation to Africa. Clinicians involved in caring for Rastafari are encouraged to make diagnosis based on phenomenological grounds rather than on social behavior. Many blacks who become engaged in the antithetical transformation to membership in the Rastafari movement may be attempting to resolve racial, religious, class and gender conflicts. The Rastafari movement may produce an affirmation of black identity and a moral framework for black people emerging from centuries of salvery, colonization and oppression (Au)